Preventing valuable knowledge from walking out the doorLike many other companies, TVA is facing the imminent retirement of a large percentage of its work force-an estimated 30 to 40 percent of employees will retire over the next five years. These experienced employees possess much unique, undocumented knowledge. Many of them literally built the plants and facilities that they now operate and maintain.
TVA were the pioneers for knowledge retention. The original presentation to their board was back in 1998. Most other KRT programmes, including M&S and KIN can trace their origins back to this original work by Andy Wright, a senior manager in Leadership Development at TVA.
The Getting Things Done method rests on the principle that a person needs to move tasks out of the mind by recording them externally. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate on actually performing those tasks.